- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Scotland report, The State of Child Health, and which of the report's recommendations it plans to take forward.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's State of Child Health report which reaffirms the work currently underway across government to improve child health. The Scottish Government is carefully considering all of the recommendations in the report to identify any further work needed.
Many of the report's recommendations are already being taken forward in Scotland including: rolling out the Family Nurse Partnership to reach every eligible teenage mother in Scotland by the end of 2018; prioritisation and expansion of the health visiting service provided to families; bringing forward a Child Poverty Bill for Scotland; maintaining our commitment to support people in Scotland affected by the UK Government's welfare cuts; providing a Baby Box for all newborn babies; progress in achieving the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly best practice standards; placing relationships, sexual health and parenthood education at the centre of the school curriculum; achieving the target of halving exposure to second hand smoke through the Take it Right Outside campaign five years early; investing in a range of programmes to support and encourage healthy eating; investing in free school meals for all primary one to three children; investing in physical education in schools; exceeding our target of delivering 150 Community Sport Hubs across all local authorities; working on a new Mental Health Strategy which will focus on the earliest and most effective interventions to prevent children and young people from becoming ill; and committing to producing an overarching child health and wellbeing strategy to consolidate all of the actions.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 500 new health visitors that it announced in June 2014 will be in post by 2017-18.
Answer
ISD Official Statistics for quarter end March 2017 will be published in June 2017.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported increase in housebreaking across Edinburgh.
Answer
Day to day decisions on policing matters are a matter for Police Scotland, with the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland continue to tackle housebreaking through the City’s dedicated housebreaking team and a range of tactics and measures to best serve Edinburgh’s communities. Police Scotland are also delivering local home security conferences and working with partners across the city to tackle the issue of break-ins and pursue offenders.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in delivering a treatment pathway for people with hepatitis C.
Answer
Through substantial financial investment and the implementation of successive strategies to improve diagnosis and treatment pathways, Scotland has achieved one of the most effective whole-system approaches to Hepatitis C in the world.
The success of our approach is demonstrated by the decline in Hepatitis C Virus-related liver failure in Scotland from 156 cases in 2014 to 121 in 2015, a 22% reduction. If this trend continues, the Scottish Government is on track to achieve its strategic goal to reduce such disease presentation by 75% by 2020.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been refused (a) cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and (b) other talking therapies or psychological treatments in each of the last five years because they did not take anti-depressant medication.
Answer
Any prescribing or referral for psychological therapies treatment is a clinical decision for a patient’s doctor in discussion with the patient and in terms of anti-depressants there is good evidence that GPs assess and treat depression appropriately. All GPs prescribing is monitored and discussed individually through annual appraisal. Audit of prescribing in mental health commonly occurs involving Health Board pharmacy departments. There is National annual reporting of prescribing patterns and trends which are carefully considered by Government and other agencies.
Data is published by Information Services Division on the number of people referred to psychological therapies and starting treatment each quarter, Psychological Therapies Waiting Times In NHSScotland, as well as on the level of prescribing for mental health published on an annual basis, Medicines used in Mental Health, which includes the level of prescribing for anti-depressants. These reports are available online at http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/. The Scottish Government has also published “Key Information on the use of Antidepressants in Scotland” which can be found online at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00456540.pdf.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have hepatitis C, and how many of them have been reviewed for treatment.
Answer
The latest Health Protection Scotland estimate from 2015 is that there were 35,900 people in Scotland living with chronic hepatitis C.
Approximately 8,600 people have been initiated on Hepatitis C Virus therapy since the launch of Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan Phase II in 2008. This has contributed to a significant fall in the total number of infected people in Scotland, a reduction from a peak of 39,000 in 2009.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the administrative forms that nurses have to fill out.
Answer
Record keeping of an individual’s care is an important aspect of a nurse’s role and contributes to ensuring quality of care. As part of their role nurses and midwives must keep clear and accurate records relevant to their practice. This requirement is set out in the revised Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code, which came in to effect from 31 March 2015, and further details of the requirements can be found at - https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf
In addition as part of our Excellence in Care work programme, led by our Chief Nursing Officer, we will be including work on record keeping.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the recent reports by (a) Inrix and (b) TomTom regarding traffic congestion in Edinburgh.
Answer
The Scottish Government is familiar with the content of recent studies. The Scottish Government recognises the important role that Edinburgh and its region plays in the economy of Scotland. As such, Transport Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government, is currently working with regional and local planning and transport authorities to undertake a cross boundary multi-modal transport study to assess the impact of current and projected future travel demand on the strategic transport network in the South East of Scotland.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2017
-
Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding traffic congestion and what support it is providing to the council to help it alleviate this.
Answer
Although the mitigation of congestion on local roads within Edinburgh is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government recognises the important contribution that Edinburgh makes to the economy of Scotland. With this in mind, Transport Scotland is currently working with regional and local planning and transport authorities, including City of Edinburgh Council, to undertake a cross boundary multi-modal transport study.
This will assess the impact of current and projected future travel demand on the strategic transport network in the South East of Scotland. It will also assist in identifying options for infrastructure and for other measures which can be considered to improve transport in the Edinburgh area.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
-
Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that schools have adequate numbers of support staff.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017
